ARTS RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

B.C. is locked in a three-way race between the Conservatives, the Liberals and the New Democrats and the outcome could decide the election.

UBC political scientist Max Cameron believes a Liberal or NDP minority government would likely mean new clout for some of the urban ridings that have historically voted NDP or Liberal.

UBC political scientist David Moscrop says mistakes like sending a voter card to ineligible Canadian residents happen every election.

“There are 26 million voter cards that go out, and a few of those are going to be mistaken,” Moscrop said, noting that voter information cards are produced by a variety of sources including the Canada Revenue Agency.

Canadians are voting earlier in record numbers and the Liberals are leading the polls with 37 per cent support. According to Max Cameron, a political science professor at UBC, Justin Trudeau’s “Obama effect” has given the Liberals a needed boost.

“[Mr. Trudeau] is a genuinely likeable guy. He seems to be a breath of fresh air, evoking this image of youth, optimism, and change,” Cameron said.

The Conservatives appear to be heading for defeat at the polls and are unlikely to be able to form a minority government, according to Max Cameron, director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at UBC.

“Mr. Harper, who has governed in a very partisan manner for the last four years, really has no dance partner, so it’s hard to see how he can hold together any kind of minority parliament,” Cameron said.

Cameron says if a coalition is formed or if the Liberals win minority status, the Liberals and the NDP will find common ground in some legislative issues.

A similar article appeared on MSN.

UBC political science professor Richard Johnston was quoted in a New York Times analysis of the NDP’s election campaign. Johnston said the party’s early rise in the polls was mostly due to the party’s victory in Alberta in May.

Johnston added that Mulcair’s campaign style didn’t do him any favours, saying “Tom Mulcair is the real deal. He’s just not a very interesting real deal.”

A six-person mission from the Organization for Security and Economic Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been sent to Ottawa to monitor the federal election on Monday.

UBC political scientist Max Cameron called OSCE a pioneer in election monitoring.

Metro News discusses how to make up your mind in the upcoming federal election.

“If the voting act is to try and produce a federal government that is closest to your preferences, then voting strategically is something that you definitely should do,” said UBC political scientist Fred Cutler.

UBC political scientist Gerald Baier talks about five things you need to know about Elections Canada with CBC News, including who runs it.

“It falls under no government ministry. It is an independent office of parliament,” Baier said.

Freed Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy has arrived in Vancouver.

Fahmy was arrested and jailed nearly two years ago on terrorism charges in Egypt, but was pardoned by the Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last month.

Fahmy is joining the UBC Graduate School of Journalism as a Journalist in Residence.

Strategic voting is discussed on CBC’s The Current.

UBC political scientist Michael Byers said strategic voting makes casting a ballot a negative experience instead of a positive one.

The possibility of a continued Conservative minority government is discussed in a new article on CTV News.

“We’re in the realm of convention here, not formal, written rules and the only rule that really applies is that Parliament must be convened once a year — so, in principle, (Harper) could extemporize,” said UBC political scientist Max Cameron.

A similar story appeared in The Huffington Post and iPolitics.

Strategic voting has long-term consequences, argues Daniel Westlake, a PhD candidate in political science at UBC, in a new National Post op-ed.

“New Democrats voting Liberal to keep the Conservatives out of power (or Liberals voting NDP to do the same), hurt their party’s ability to compete for government in the long term,” wrote Westlake.

Babies use their tongues to distinguish speech sounds, according to a new UBC study.

Researchers tested whether babies could distinguish alternating D sounds in Hindi. The babies could tell the sounds apart when they could move their tongues, which a teether prevents.

“At this point I don’t think that these data suggest parents should be taking away teethers or soothers. The majority of infants are chewing on something semi-regularly most of the day. And most of these infants do go on to develop speech normally,” said lead author Alison Bruderer, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences at UBC.

A similar story appeared CBC BC.

Justin Trudeau’s campaign to win over the soft Conservatives in the last few days of the election campaign could work, according to UBC political scientist David Moscrop.

“It seems like the logical end of a long-term shift in momentum in [the Liberals’] favour,” Moscrop said. “The question is do they have enough time to really capitalize on it.”